5 month old baby - should I worry?

I had gestational diabetes. Baby was born 6lb 15oz 4 weeks early after an induction due to me having hypos. My other children were that weight at 40 weeks, so he was big for me. When born he had stores of fat, all over him which he lost. He was born above the 75th centile for weight and 98th centile for head circumference. By day 3 he had dropped to 6lb 3oz and barely put weight on. Was 4 weeks old when he reached his birth weight.

He then followed the 25th centile for a little while, then started dropping. Went below the 2nd centile but was at 4.5 months back to the 2nd centile. His head dropped to below the 75th centile but was back up to 98th 2 weeks ago, doesn't have stores of fat on his head, just a big head!

The last week a few people have been saying how small he is and that he looks like he isn't growing. This is making me worry :/ He is small and is still in 0-3 month clothes, some 3-6 are beginning to fit him now. Because what people have said I just checked his length. He wasn't measured at birth but was 51cms at his 6 week check, which put him on the 25th centile. Today he was 59cms, which puts him between the 0.4th and 2nd centile.

All centiles are at his corrected age.

He seems to be developing fine. Is smiling, has laughed once, can roll over both ways but people commenting on his size is really stressing me out! Should I worry? Sorry this is long

Sorry if I've missed this but how old is he now? When was the last time you saw the doctor or HV and what did they say? I think if you are concerned you should make an appointment with the GP or HV and ask their thoughts, as he's small they aren't going to think you are wasting their time. Is he feeding and sleeping normally?

Thanks for your reply. He has just turned 5 months. Last saw a trainee health visitor a couple of weeks ago. She measured his head and said that wasn't a worry because he was born on the 98th centile for head circumference so even though it dropped it's back up. She checked his weight and was happy that it had gone up from below the 2nd centile to the 2nd centile but if he dropped lower he would have been referred. His length has only been checked at his 6 week check. He is sleeping and feeding great. I think my main concern is how big his head is compared to the rest of his body :/

I'm more concerned about how small his body is compared to his head.... The head seems to have been following a centile line, but the weight seems to have drifted down quite a lot of centiles. Some "catch down" growth for having been an infant of a diabetic mother is fine, but this seems more of a drop than usual.

Could just be that you're a family of short people (if you, and dad are both short - you don't give your heights). But slightly surprised they're not referring for a check up, to make sure nothing's being missed.

I don't understand how his head shrank and then grew again. It makes me wonder if the person updating his book is 100% accurate when calculating and marking the centiles. I know my DCs red books were all over the shop - until I sat down myself and redid the calculations and plotting myself.

Head measurements aren't that accurate. Ds was checked as his head fell from 50% to 2% between birth and about 6 week check. He then was monitored for the year and remained on the 2%, so the conclusion reached was the birth measurement was incorrect-and I was told it was really easy to measure wrong.

Some children follow the centile lines, others don't. One friend of mine used to have 10lb babies that didn't grow. The first one there was panic-I think he was under 18lb at his one year check. By the third baby which did similar they decided it was just the way her babies grew. They all have grown up perfectly fine-but never following a centile line. I think the oldest is nearly 6 foot now having grown in fits and starts-so they'd look really tall for a while, then not grow for ages and start looking small.

I'm 5ft 5 and my husband s 6ft. My older children followed the 91st (my son) and 50th centile for height. My son the 98th centile for weight and my daughter was around the 9th centile for weight.

His head measurement at birth was 36cms. His forehead was just squishy fat because he gained so much (I was on a lot of insulin but my sugars were still high) He lost that squishy fat pretty quickly. His measurements were double checked because of the drop in centiles and he has his own tape measure in his red book to make sure the same one is used. When measured the last time, I asked him to measure because his head looks big and she said it was fine because he was born on the higher centile?

I'm a bit worried about going straight to the dr because I don't want to make a fuss about nothing (if it's nothing) so I think I will try and get hold of the health visitor next week, who probably won't be happy that I have questioned them.